Wednesday Thoughts

My weekly jumble of mostly unrelated thoughts.

I went to a doctor on Monday and at the end of the appointment he said, "You're relatively young and in good health...." Was it really necessary to say "relatively"? I can't even remember what he said after that and it may have been important.

In other news, this week my office has been abuzz with snow day fever. The speculation for a snow day today started on Monday. At that point, I still wasn't sure if I wanted it or not (crazy as that sounds) as evidenced by this conversation I had with my co-worker, Ann:

Me: Well, it would be nice but then we'd have so much work to do on Thursday to catch up!
Ann (suspiciously): It sort of sounds like you don't want a snow day. It almost sounds like you're a .... work lover.
Me: Take it back!!

Yesterday as the snow was falling the words "snow day" were on everyone's lips. I was taken over by it too. Ann was getting progressively tense, thinking that by talking about it so much, we were jinxing it. Here is another conversation we had at one point in the day:

Me: So Ann, are you feeling snow day hope yet?
Ann: Yeah, but I've already gone through all the stages and now I'm angry that we're going to have to come in.

When you hear about the possibility of a snow day, it's impossible to get the idea out of your head no matter how hard you try. You know it's dangerous to get your hopes up but you can't shake the idea. You try not to think about how late you'll be able to sleep in, or all the time you'll be able to spend watching the Golden Girls and eating Lucky Charms while working on your FarmVille farm, but it's too late. You've got Snow Day Fever. (SDF) Some people though, like Ann, quickly cycle through the stages in an attempt to not get their hopes up. I think the stages go something like this:

Hope - it's totally going to happen! Snow day!
Fear - what if it doesn't happen? You're setting yourself up for disappointment.
Denial - there's no way we'll get enough snow.
Hope - but we might.
Anger - it'll never happen! Get it out of your head!!
Resignation: if it doesn't happen, I will survive.
Hope - it might happen.
Anger - stop thinking like that. You'll only get hurt.
Hope - I can't help it.

Some people rest on anger just for safety. Especially if they've been hurt by SDF before.

But it happened, we got a snow day today! Here I am at 10:00am lounging in bed, writing in my blog. Try not to hate me too much.

And lastly, in Wednesday thoughts, the votes are in for a possible hair change and it looks like numbers one and three are the winners. Any last opinions? My hair appointment is in a week and a half and I still haven't decided what to do.

Happy Wednesday!

Snow Day

Today the unthinkable happened: a snow day! Last night the weather forecasters predicted up to eight inches of snow for today but I didn't believe it for a minute. It was a beautiful weekend, weather wise, and winter weather seemed impossible! But the forecasters insisted snow was coming.

As you may remember, my company has a policy in which we are closed when the area schools cancel due to snow. This policy has turned all of us into children when it comes to snow days. I could barely sleep last night wondering if it might really happen. But when I woke up (way before my alarm) and looked out the windows, it looked like it had only snowed a couple inches. I dejectedly tried to fall back to sleep.

About an hour later, (6:30) I got a text message from Ann that simply said, "OMG Snow day!!!!" but I thought she must be mistaken. So I turned on the news, which confirmed what Ann said. Still I didn't believe it. So I went to the school's website, and once again had it confirmed that it was a snow day. Still, I doubted. How could it be a snow day? In April? Finally I texted Kathy, who confirmed that it was indeed a snow day. In true "kid" form, I couldn't fall back asleep.

The snow is melting already, as we knew it would. I feel bad for those who had to go out driving in it this morning, but I for one enjoyed the brief April snowstorm.

Snow day!

Bright and early this morning, I got this e-mail from my friend Sarah (Sarah is a math teacher in Ann Arbor):

Congratulations! :) You've been initiated into the wonderful world of adult snow days!!! :)

My day has so far followed some of my plans I laid out yesterday, but with some variation, which I will show below:

7:00 Wake up, check the news, see that it's a snow day, cheer, dance - Yes, I did this.

7:05 Back in bed, asleep - Totally; it was awesome.

11:00 Wake up, watch The Price is Right, eat a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup - Check.

12:00 Go sledding - Skipped this, instead I watched an episode of Buffy with Katherine, then took my Nintendo over to my friend Kristin's house and we played Dr. Mario. Her brother Shawn was over and commented on how it felt like we were ten years old again. A snow day and video games! (What could be better?) Kristin did her best to get the kids to distract me while playing Dr. Mario, but it was to no avail. Better luck next time Kristin.

1:30 Come in, freezing and wet, change to warm clothes - Not necessary.
1:35 Make hot chocolate - Why haven't I done this yet? I think this is next on my agenda.

1:40 Get under a blanket on couch and watch either Christmas Vacation or The Grinch - Didn't get to this, but I downloaded some Christmas music earlier today, which is in the same spirit.

3:30 Nap - I've gotta get on this one still.

My day hasn't been without adventure though. The roads, especially in my town, are still pretty messy and it was almost impossible to get my car out. Here are a couple pictures of the process. Luckily Katherine is a wiz with the snow blower and got me free! Did any of you have any snow day adventures?

Snow day?

My company announced an awesome new policy yesterday: when Ann Arbor schools are closed for bad weather, we're closed too! We were thrilled with this new policy because it means having at least one or two (or dare I say even more?) snow days this year. And it seems that first snow day might be... tomorrow! They are predicting 6-10 inches of snow!

We don't want to get our hopes up of course. Well, except Kathy, who is trying to jinx us all by telling us that she's going to count on having a snow day tomorrow, and plan her day accordingly. Everyone knows this is a bad idea! But she won't be talked out of it.

I'm planning on working tomorrow... but in the back of my mind I am secretly planning on a snow day. This is what I have planned:

7:00 Wake up, check the news, see that it's a snow day, cheer, dance
7:05 Back in bed, asleep
11:00 Wake up, watch The Price is Right, eat a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup
12:00 Go sledding
1:30 Come in, freezing and wet, change to warm clothes
1:35 Make hot chocolate
1:40 Get under a blanket on couch and watch either Christmas Vacation or The Grinch
3:30 Nap

That about covers it. There might be slight variation, but I think that looks like a good plan. Am I forgetting any good snow day activities?

However, if we do end up having to work, Kathy and I have been considering going in together on buying either a pack of sled dogs or a a snowmobile. We live a couple blocks away from each other, so we'll carpool. Kathy thinks people will complain about the sled dogs barking all the time, but I think they're the better choice (especially because she'd keep them at her house). I'll let you know when we make our decision.